Apocalypses

About half an hour ago.

Research outpost #9f.

"Come on, Aiden, tell me your secret." Charak was very excited as the man in front of him slowly stood up. Although his legs were weak, his eyes were clear.

"There is no secret." Aiden smiled at him, "I told you before, didn't I? It's all about the mental prowess."

"Don't joke with me." Charak frowned, "I have seen that you have done something with his body. You hit their chest, they fell in pain, but when they woke up, there was no problem with them. And you did this to three out of five."

Aiden shook his head, "I just made their minds clearer, so their mind was more resilient to the effects of the beast will."

'Huh? Clear the mind?' Robin smirked, 'he must have used a slave tattoo. Otherwise, they wouldn't have obeyed him with a single command.'

When Robin checked, he could see a black band like a mark on the man's right thumb, 'that must be the slave tattoo.'

However, Charak didn't know any of these. He inquired in excitement, 'clear the mind? How? Did you use mana?'

"Yes, it's mana." said Aiden, "It's not significant, but it increases the chances of survival."

"What are you doing, actually? Is it like some sort of medication that enhances the clarity of your mind?"

"Sir, we've got a problem." The junior researcher came running. Besides Aiden, Robin, and Charak, there were a few doctors in the lab.

They were checking the vitals of the soldier who had just absorbed the essence of the beast.

The junior researcher's rough breathing attracted all of their attention. Charak asked, with a deep frown on his forehead, "What is it?"

"All the captives had gone into a rampage, transformed into mad beasts." The junior researcher lacked better words to explain the situation, but Charak got the gist of it.

"Why are you telling me that? You guys can't do one thing right." Charak was dissatisfied with the disruption, "Increase the fire mana concentration to 500 ppm."

"We have increased it to 1000, but they're not calming down. Even the mutants are behaving erratically." Panic was visible on his face as he continued, "Even the sleeping giant of the third labs are showing signs of waking up..." *Boom*

"They might have..." He used all of his courage to utter those words before running out of the lab. Charak followed after him.

Aiden was about to leave, but Mraz's voice sounded restless. "Get out of here. Get off the plane as soon as possible."

"Huh! Could A few captive beasts be so frightening?" Aiden couldn't say those words as he knew that there was no way Mraz would joke about something so serious.

'What's going on?' Robin was about to leave the lab, but he stopped when he saw that Aiden didn't move from the spot.

"The mana around the plane is becoming unstable. Something is controlling the mana of the plane."

'Mana of the entire plane? Is that possible, too?' Aiden frowned, 'could anyone do that?'

"The guardian of the plane could do it."

'Didn't we see the remains?' Aiden was sure of it, so did Mraz.

"If it is not the Guardian, there is one more thing." Mraz frowned, adding, "A spell. A Planar Spell."

'What?' It was not something Aiden had heard before.

"It's not important. First, get out of here." Mraz's voice became serious, "Whatever it is, it wouldn't have any good intention."

The lab was already empty. Whether it was the doctors or the newly integrated human, they were all gone. There was just Robin waiting at the entrance.

"What happened?" Robin asked nervously, noticing the tense atmosphere around Aiden.

"Get out of the underground labs. If you can get a transporter, set the course for the port."

"Spacedock? Are you leaving the planet?" Robin couldn't help asking.

"Let's go there first," Aiden hesitated for a moment, but remembering something, he ran out of there.

"What happened?" Aiden's erratic behavior left him even more confused, but he still followed.

"Ah!" *Bang* Screams and gunshots filled the corridor. Yet things were a lot more familiar to them. The broken lights were flickering, the fresh blood had stained the walls, while the air carried a heavy stench.

"Hey! Don't go there," someone screamed from the back. He didn't know if Aiden had heard it, but it certainly drew the attention of the ice troll.

"Gahhhhh!" It screamed and swung his fist at Aiden and *Bang*

Most of them didn't realize that Robin fired two shots, and both of them went through the eyeholes on its only remaining heads. Although no blood came out of the wounds, the stiff body of the ice troll fell on the ground.

It was when they examined that they found that a layer of frost was covering the head. But Robin had already followed Aiden out.

Armed troops were also streaming into the underground tunnel. Some glared in dissatisfaction, while others slowed down to understand why a couple of soldiers were running out.

While Aiden spared no glance at them, Robin gave them a slight smile while following Aiden.

As soon as Aiden came out, his foot came to an unwanted halt. His face darkened as he mumbled, "There is too much blood mana in the air."

Aiden had felt it from the blood mana stones and also from Luke, but it was his first-time to feel such thick mana in the air. Yet it was a plane where the ice mana dominated everything.

"They have gone mad." Mraz cursed in his mind.

'What is it?' Aiden knew it wasn't any pleasant, 'why is there so much blood mana in the air?'

"Why are you asking such an obvious question? There are only two things that can produce such dense blood mana, and I don't think that there is any blood mana stone mine in the area."

"Blood?" Aiden sighed, "Did they kill everyone on the planet?"

"What?" Out of everything he had expected, those weren't the words Robin wanted to hear from Aiden.

"Take what you need. We'll head out soon," Aiden said and ran towards the communication center.

"They are using some kind of spell to transform all the blood into mana."

'A Planar spell?'

"No, it might not even be a high-grade spell, but the chaotic mana..." Mraz paused for a moment but soon became excited. "They are trying to break the shell."

'Break the shell? What shell?'

"The shell of the plane," Mraz explained in the language Aiden could understand, "do you remember the other plane? The plane from where the Nekras had come. Those blue bastards are trying to open a path to connect to that plane."

'They are trying to bring their army to this plane.' Aiden gritted his teeth, asking, 'What should I do?'

"What can you do?" Mraz wasn't trying to hide his helplessness, "There is nothing you can do. Just get the hell out of here."

Aiden clenched his fist and entered the communication center. When the operator inquired, he just showed the card given by Luke, and the operator understood it.

The operator soon provided him with this communicator helmet, saying, "he is waiting for you."

Ira was in the virtual room when Aiden put on the helmet and greeted Aiden with a smile.

"They are coming. I don't think this planet has any chance of surviving." Aiden was confident about it. "You need to send a craft as soon as possible."

"Why? What happened?" Ira frowned.

"A planar spell. They're opening a portal to connect the other plane."

"Impossible." Ira cursed. But when he realized that Aiden had no chance to lie, he asked again, "How much time do you have?"

"It had started." As he spoke, Aiden felt that the holographic body of Ira distorted a little. Aiden wanted to warn Ira, but he also realized the problem.

"Take Charak with you. He has a way to get you out of the planet. And if they attacked the port, then go to the XVK tw..." With a sharp pain in his brain, the view in front of him returned to normal.

Before he could understand what had happened, the ground beneath him shook violently. Mraz said inside his mind, "It's already begun."

Aiden bolted out of the room, only to find that he wasn't the only one. Most of the people were already standing outside.

The ground continued to rock violently, the vicious wind that was carrying snow along with it making it hard to keep the eyes open. And as looked up, the falling stars had riddled the sky.

"Apocalypses," said Aiden, attracting the attention of the people next to him. But the situation did remind him of the stories of the old man who used to live next to their house.

"You could say that," said Mraz, "it might really be the end of this plane."

'We need to leave now.' Aiden raised his head to look for Charak, as he could still sense the presence of Robin on the other side of the research post.

Yet it surprised him as he looked around. The sight that had appeared in his eyes had drained the blood off his face.

At the horizon, a bright pillar of light shot from the land to the sky. The people around him slowly fell on the ground as the surrounding air began to vibrate violently. He was relatively okay because of his mana essence.

As he continued to observe the pillar, he realized that somewhere close to its top, the bright light pillar split. They spread in the opposite direction, perpendicular to the light pillar.

The bright pillar of light shone more intensely, so did its branches. And the wind came to a sudden halt. It was then Aiden first realized it.

"The blood mana in the air had vanished." In the suffocating silence, with the air filled with groans and the sound of rough breathing, Aiden's voice was a little loud.

"The spell is complete," As Mraz declared, a dark line appeared in the middle of the pillar. And it kept on widening.

"That's a door!" In a matter of a few breaths, the black line widened so much that Aiden soon noticed that it wasn't a line at all, but it was the night sky on the opposite side of the door.

"It now connected the planes." Mraz simple words sounded like a death sentence for the planet in Aiden's ear.